Hi everybody
I would like to let you know that, for reasons not related to you, you will most likely encounter severe mobility difficulties at certain times during the aforementioned days here in Catalonia, especially in its capital city, Barcelona.
This is due to several civil disobedience activities planned by civil society and political parties that will take place to protest against the repression by the Spanish government towards Catalan people and institutions.
Around Oct 12th, the Spanish High Court is expected to deliver the sentence against ministers and the vice-president of the Catalan government for having held an independence referendum on October 2017. The sentence has already been leaked and will be hefty. This situation between Spain and Catalonia has been going on for several years but has recently spiked with the jailing of these elected representatives, the exile of the rest of the government and the temporary suspension of the self-government of Catalonia that took place last year.
As in any society --especially the Catalan one, formed by a large number of descendants of migrants from so many countries, and most especially from regions elsewhere in Spain-- there are different 'stands' on what the future of Catalonia should be, but a very large chunk pushes for independence. This has been expressed for several years during La Diada, the Catalan National Day, on Sep 11th by millions of people in massive marches as well as by the consecutive election of indy governments at every electoral call.
BUT, this doesn't mean that, as a tourist, one needs to cancel anything, just make provisions in case you have to modify your intended visits on specific days and also on ways to move from A to B if certain roads/streets are blocked.
Anyone that has followed these massive demonstrations of Catalan civil society these past few years will notice this is a non-violent festive-like movement that represents a wide cross-section of citizens covering all ages and walks of life. There has never been any violence at all -except during the indy referendum held in 2017 when the Spanish paramilitary police charged against voters.
I would imagine you'd like to know 'where' and 'when' all these activities will happen to try to minimize the consequences of these disruptions, but unfortunately, for obvious reasons, some will be announced just hours before they're convoked to prevent the Spanish government to block them.
--part 1--